The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
